Taking Citrus Out Of State Okay If Stickers Attached

A state canker-eradication official said Friday that citrus in unsealed containers may be taken out of state to areas that don't produce citrus under limited conditions.

Citrus that has registered stamps or decals on at least 85 percent of the fruit may be sold in unsealed containers and taken out of state. However, the required federal limited-use canker permit must be inside the container or attached to it, canker official Ken Bailey said. He was clarifying an earlier announcement that didn't note the exception.

Bailey said cars and trucks with improperly bagged or loose citrus have been seen in recent weeks by state transportation and agriculture inspectors at roadside inspection stations. The fruit has been confiscated, he said.

''Our primary concern is to alert people that the bag of fruit must have the limited permit inside,'' he said. ''We're not really pushing the angle about it being sealed'' as long as at least 85 percent of the fruit is marked and the packaging has the seal in it or attached to it.

Bailey said that all trucks, pickups and vans are checked at inspection stations near the Florida border. Occasionally cars are stopped and checked. ''We've found pickup trucks and a few commercial vehicles with 20 or 30 bags of fruit'' without the permits, Bailey said. The state is primarily concerned, he said, about fruit picked from yard trees because that fruit has not been inspected nor treated with a chemical to kill the canker bacteria. Canker is not harmful to humans.

Bailey said a violation of the canker quarantine, including improperly taking fruit out of state, is a third-degree misdemeanor punishable by a fine of as much as $1,000 and a jail term of as much as one year.